Zambia: Election fever
The presidential and parliamentary elections are to be held before October and already talk radio programs are full of voter opinions. Newspapers - both state-owned and private - are screaming with the politicians’ election promises. And the national broadcaster’s TV news bulletins are offering generous campaign coverage of the incumbent President, Rupiah Banda. Strike up a conversation in a taxi in the capital Lusaka, and the talk with the driver will invariably turn to politics and what is good for "the people".
It was against this background that DW-AKADEMIE conducted a workshop in Lusaka with radio journalists on Interviews and Talkshows. It was no surprise that our participants wanted to explore political themes, develop their skills to interview politicians and discuss ways to improve talk show programming during the election campaign.
Asking tough questions
Our group of ten participants was quite diverse. Half were from Lusaka and worked in local community radio stations. Two journalists were from rural community stations and three journalists had travelled from neighboring Malawi. Through group discussions several recurring points came up regarding interviews:
“It's hard to get politicians and the ‘big fish’ to answer questions.” “Sometimes politicians try to intimidate you when you ask them tough questions.” “I find it hard to stay in control of the interview when a politician just keeps on talking and talking.”
Many journalists might recognize or have experienced some of these problems first hand. And they can be even more challenging during live programming or if a tradition of intimidating journalists prevails.
Everyone agreed on the importance of being well-prepared for an interview – doing good background research; determining the purpose of the interview; deciding on the first question; and thinking about a possible interview structure.
Of course, the importance of listening carefully to answers and being aware of asking questions on behalf of the audience were also emphasized.
Together we analyzed interviews, explored different types of questions, practiced interviewing in role play exercises and shared our tips on polite ways to interrupt particularly verbose interviewees.
Weak journalists or weak politicians?
Our participants talked to leading journalists in Lusaka who were willing to offer their views and time – either for interviews or as studio guests in our practice talks hows. Costa Mwansa, the head of news and current affairs at the commercial TV station, MUVI-TV, said some politicians do not understand the role of the media during elections and are not comfortable with how deep journalists probe into their background or their policies.
Guy Degen and Jasper Funck conducted a six-day training workshop in Zambia in cooperation with the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication ZAMCOM. The training is part of a regional DW-AKADEMIE project on Local Reporting in Southern Africa, designed to support community, commercial and public radio stations.